Mouth-to-snout CPR saves dog
Published: February 27, 2007
Tending to a dying dog on his team may have derailed Aaron Burmeister’s dream of winning this year’s Yukon Quest race.
Burmeister, of Nenana, resuscitated a 4-year-old male named Step just outside Pelly Crossing on Monday afternoon, an ordeal that he estimates cost him six hours but kept the dog alive.
As of Friday evening, he was in eighth place at more than 12 hours off the lead.
Burmeister was riding his brake as hard as possible down a steep hill when he noticed Step struggling to run down it.
“He was just staggering, and by the time I got to the bottom he collapsed,” Burmeister said while smoking a cigarette Thursday on the front steps of the Eldorado Hotel. “There was no vital signs, no heart rate, no breathing. He had swallowed his tongue going down the hill.”
Burmeister pried Step’s mouth open, pulled his tongue back and immediately began CPR, done with dogs by blowing air in through the nose, then performing chest pumps.
“It took me a good minute and a half,” said Burmeister, a nine-time Iditarod finisher and Quest rookie. “I did four sets before he even coughed once. After about 10 minutes, he was stabilized.”
Burmeister took Step back to Pelly Crossing and left him there before continuing on.
“Right now Step is happy and barking and screaming. The vets told me all his vital signs were good in Pelly,” he said.
The unfortunate part of the story is that Burmeister lost two hours going back and forth with Step, he said, and another four on the 201-mile run to Dawson because his run/rest schedule was completely thrown off.
Burmeister, who had hoped to contend for the Quest title but is now traveling with just nine dogs, also isn’t in position to try regaining the deficit.
“The thing is, I can’t make a push,” said Burmeister, 31. “I can’t gamble with them at this point because I don’t have enough dogs. … So I’m going to have to run conservatively and hopefully let the dogs’ speed pick off teams.”
Burmeister will follow up the Quest journey with another trip on the Iditarod Trail.
“I’m resigned to the fact that we’re not racing here to win right now. We’re racing to get to the finish line and learn as much as we can,” he said. “It is a bummer, but that’s racing.”
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